In photography or image acquisition and/or processing techniques, impurities can cause imperfections in any images produced. For example, if dust is introduced into a camera or image processing system, such dust can cause obstructions, shadows or other extraneous or undesired artifacts in any images that are ultimately produced. Such impurities may enter the system by any number of ways including, for example, when lenses are interchanged.
During lens exchange, sensors may become exposed to the environment while dust may gain entry into the system through any openings created by removal or displacement of the lens. The result is that the impurities may block light entering the system and may create dark spots on images.
Dust or other impurities or the effects caused by the presence of such impurities may be decreased or removed from an image processing or image capturing system. In one example, the impurities may be physically removed from a sensor. For example, cleaning liquids, brushes, vacuums, and/or dust adhesives may be applied to the sensor to remove any impurities on the sensor. In another example, images may be captured with the impurities in place and the effects of the impurities on the images that are captured may be removed via photo software. For example, dust particles may be not be noticed until after the images are captured and produced. In such processes, a cloning tool may be used to manipulate the image such that the effects of the dust particles are reduced in the final image. In another example, manual cloning may be performed or image inpainting and texture synthesis may be utilized to reduce the effects created by the impurities or dust in the system.